Developing habits is a part of life and something everyone does, but you really should be focusing on the healthy habits. Healthy Habits are things you do on a daily basis that are good for both your physical and mental health. Take a look at these healthy habits that are great for women.

Get More Exercise

If you don’t have a regular fitness routine, now is the perfect time to start. Exercise is wonderful for anyone, male or female, but it has some unique advantages for women. Exercising can help you lose weight and manage your weight, fight diseases like heart disease and diabetes, and prevent conditions like arthritis and osteoporosis as you age. It is also great during any phase of your life, whether you are a teenager, in your childbearing years, or even as a senior adult. This is a great healthy habit to start developing now. There is no doubt that overcoming ingrained habits can be a challenge. Reading books like “Small Habits, Big Changes: How the Tiniest Steps Lead to a Happier, Healthier You” by Steven Handel can be a game changer here.

Focus on Your Nutrition

In addition to exercise, you should also develop a habit of eating better. Don’t try to find some fad diet just to lose weight, but choose a new way of eating that becomes a part of your lifestyle. Think of longevity and choose foods that are good for you, provide adequate nutrition, and are foods you can eat and cook easily. If your favorite food is bread, then low-carb is probably not for you. On the other hand, if you are a protein girl, you might do great on Keto or Paleo. Pick and choose based on what provides the most nutrition, but also what is manageable for your current lifestyle. There is no right or wrong. Experience with different foods and keep a food diary. This way it is much easier to figure out which foods support you vs. which foods make you feel less energetic or well.

Don’t Neglect Your Mental Health

Now is also the perfect time to start developing habits that are good for your mental health as well. Far too many people, women especially, neglect their mental health. Your mental health can also have an impact on your physical well-being, so it is very important. Some things that can help your mental health include getting regular exercise and eating right. Writing in a journal, de-stressing, when you can, and taking some time for yourself for a little self-care. Little tiny steps in each of these directions can take you a long way. This method is called “Kaizen” and can be applied to just about everything from food to exercise, even to changing negative thoughts to positive ones when they enter your mind.

Spend Time With Loved Ones

It is really easy to become a hermit and just work and sleep, but it is important for your health and well-being that you make a habit of visiting others. Make plans with friends, spend time with family, and reach out to people you don’t spend a lot of time with, such as co-workers or neighbors. It is a good idea to find people that uplift and support you while avoiding the people that are a negative energy drain.

Finding it hard to change ingrained habits? Connect with me for a 30 min call to learn what life could look like with a coach.

Common Mental Health Issues in Women

Something nobody ever seems to talk about – mental health. As a woman it is essential that you really pay close attention to your mental health, just like men need to. It is imperative that you not ignore symptoms of certain mental health conditions, whether you have stress or clinical depression. Here are some of the more common mental health issues women tend to face.

Stress

This is probably one of the biggest and most common mental health issues that plagues women. While both men and women can get stress, there have been many studies to show that women in general are at a higher risk for getting stress. The good news is that there are a lot of easy and healthy ways to reduce your stress levels, from changes in your job and home life, to healthy lifestyle changes like exercising more often and making sure you focus on self-care.

Anxiety

Another big mental health dilemma among women is anxiety. Anxiety in general is equal among men and women, but there are certain types of anxiety that you are more prone to. This includes generalized anxiety disorder (GAD), panic attack disorder, post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), and specific phobias like agoraphobia. If you struggle with a high amount of stress, that can also be a contributing factor to your anxiety or panic attacks. For anxiety, remedies range from cutting out caffeine and alcohol, to taking anti-anxiety medications.

Depression

Along the same lines of anxiety is depression, which is also a bigger risk in women. Studies have shown that women are twice as likely to get depression and have more suicide attempts. Women tend to commit suicide more often than men, and approximately 12 percent of women are suffering from depression, while the number is only 6 percent with men. However, men are more likely to actually die from the suicide attempts. Either way, no matter your gender, you should never ignore your depression. Get help from a licensed mental health professional right away.

Eating Disorders

Eating disorders are also considered a mental health condition, and are more common in women. Men still get anorexia and binge eating disorder, but women are at a higher risk. If you feel that you might have an eating disorder like bulimia, anorexia, binge eating disorder, or overeating disorder, you should talk to a doctor as soon as you can. These disorders affect your mental and physical state, and can even be life threatening.

Being a certified Hippocrates Health Educator I strive to follow these principals laid out by Brian Clement, and I know how hard is to follow them at times. Take what you can use, leave the rest. Try to implement one or two and once these are habit, add some more! Enjoy.

SLEEP

Amazing what 8 hrs of uninterrupted sleep can do for your body. Your body goes into a cleaning/renewal cycle every night around 9-10 p.m. and continues to clean every organ & body system through about 10-11 a.m. the next morning. If we are up late, or eat late at night we interrupt this cycle. To get the maximum restorative effect of the body’s natural cycle, get that shut-eye!

2. AVOID ALL MEATS

Yes, mankind may have been eating meat (hence the omnivore) throughout time, however, today’s meat is just not what your ancestors used to eat. With the invention of synthetic growth hormones, pesticides, herbicides, fungicides and many other chemicals that end up in our ground water, they can also end up in your beef. I recommend avoiding all meats and meat products such as milk, yogurt, kefir, butter, ice cream, eggs etc. to give your body the best chance to flourish into old age and avoid disease.

3. EAT ORGANIC FOODS

Is this going to guarantee that your foods are completely clean and healthy? No, of course not, however your chances of eating a food laden with chemicals are much less likely. Did you know that red peppers have are sprayed on average with over 100 different chemicals? That is absolutely incredible. Make sure you purchase organic especially all fruits and veggies that have thin skin like peppers, tomatoes, peaches, grapes, apples, etc. Bananas and avocados in comparison have thick skins and would be the better choice to buy conventional if you have to chose between the two. Just think of this: the more we buy organic, the more we send a message to producers what our choices are. The market will follow. It only takes 5% of consumers to make a change for producers to pay attention.

4. EAT GREENS

Especially the dark leafy ones. My favorite A’s are: Arugula, Avocado and Asparagus. Eat them in abundance, as they are good for your body. Arugula is actually considered a cruciferous vegetable like broccoli and brussel sprouts containing sulforaphane which has anti-cancer properties. Avocados are full of glutathione, a very powerful antioxidant made up of three amino acids glycine, glutamine and cysteine. Asparagus, can you say superfood? Asparagus has many benefits including reducing inflammation caused by rheumatism, reducing the risk of neurodegenerative disease and helps increase cell production to name a few. I should mention that it is best to consume all of the foods raw in order to get the most benefit!

5. AVOID SUGARS

Having one piece of fruit a day is ok if you are not having a disease. Even though fruit has many health benefits, if you are sick, especially the fruit sugar (fructose) does not do your body good. Fruit this day has been so hybridized that the sugar content is between 30-50 times higher than what it was before being manipulated. Add the mono culture, depleting our soil means depleted vitamins and minerals. Biomedical engineers at Duke University found that Metastatic cancer gorges on fructose in the liver. Just note, the medical establishment agrees that ALL sugars feed cancer, so be your own judge.

6. GERMINATE YOUR NUTS AND SEEDS

Nuts and seeds are nutritional powerhouses for the body. However, they are protected by enzyme inhibitors which can create havoc in your digestive system. Just think beans! Sprouting your nuts and seeds releases the enzyme inhibitors and will activate nutrients and make them more bio-available to your body and digestible with much less discomfort!

7. EAT FOODS WITH MEDICINAL PROPERTIES

That is going back to #4 above, eating green foods like Avocado, Asparagus and Arugula. But also Sweet Red Peppers, Red Cabbage, Brussel Sprouts, Onions, Scallions, Garlic, Ginger, Swiss Chard and spices like Cayenne, Cinnamon, herbs like Oregano, Basil and Peppermint. The list goes on, there are many foods that have medicinal properties to support our bodies. Chose your foods wisely.

8. CHEW YOUR FOOD

Before you sit down to eat your meal, take five deep breaths to oxygenate and settle down. Chew every bite about 20 times (yes I know, its a challenge!) to break open the cell walls of the food and allowing our saliva (enzymes like lipase and amylase) to “pre-digest” food already in your mouth. The chewing sends messages to the stomach and intestines and gets the whole peristaltic movement going. The more you chew, the more you break down the food, the easier it will be for our digestive juices to break down the food into smaller particles. If you swallow a glob, your stomach acid will only be able to access the outside of the glob, it will not break it down and the food will sit like a rock in your stomach. Let’s not talk about what happens after that, you already know. Did I say constipation? Chew, chew, chew, it doesn’t matter how much you eat if you can’t absorb anything. Plus here are some additional recommendations:

Don’t eat when you are upset

Don’t eat in a business meeting

Don’t eat and drive

9. DON’T DRINK WITH YOUR MEALS

When I grew up we never had water with our meals, drinking with meals was not introduced to me until I moved to America. When you drink with your meals you are diluting your digestive juices. Matter of fact, it is a good practice to stop drinking at least 15 minutes before a meal (ok to have sips of water if you need to take pills, supplements) and try not to drink for at least 1 hour after having a meal. Now hang on for this – avoid liquids for at least 3 hours after you have eaten protein and 2 hours if you were eating beans or seeds so your stomach can fully digest and absorb the nutrients.

10. WALK AT LEAST 15 MINUTES BEFORE GOING TO BED

The latest studies from Harvard and the National Sleep Foundation show that walking/exercising before going to bed will help you get a better night sleep. Walking helps reduce stress and anxiety and aids digestion by oxygenating the body. Especially if you have chronic insomia, go for a walk before going to bed. Within a couple of weeks of this ritual you should be able to fall asleep faster, sleep longer and improve your sleep quality. Give it a try, my husband and I often go for walks at night and Gidget our dog loves it too!

11. HYDRATE, HYDRATE, HYDRATE

With the exception of not drinking around meals, you want to try drink at least half your body weight in ounces. Example, if you weigh 160 lbs your body needs approximately 80 ounces of water a day. We perspire two cups (16oz) just being here on a daily basis. If you exercise (and live in Florida) it is recommended to increase another 25%. Now, if you slam your water, most of it will pass right through you. It is best to sip water at a rate of 1 cup per 30 minutes in order to let the tissues absorb the water. Any excess gets ignored. As we age we have a tendency to drink less and less so it is imperative to pay attention to your water intake. Being dehydrated only 3% witll already affect your body system and 5% will affect your brain function negatively. Consider mineralizing your water using liquid mineral supplements to get the most benefit. Reconstituted water does not have minerals in it as it would be occuring in nature, just some food for thought. This is where green juices made with a base of cucumber and celery help out tremendously by adding natural sodium, vitamins and minerals. Green juices count as hydration, whereas coffee and sports drinks do not. Herbal teas are neutral, they do not devoid your body of hydration but do not add either. Best is to go with mineralized water, green juices or the occasional coconut water straight from a coconut.

12. MAKE YOUR FOOD TASTE GOOD

That’s a no brainer but easier said then done! The best advice I can give here is that when you find a recipe you like, safe it to a file/folder where you keep all your favorites. For kids its ok to add fruit to sweeten juices, for adults I like to add dressings, sauces, herbs and spices to mix it up. It’s hard to resist the temptation of ready-made-foods that are created by food scientists that understand how our brains work. Chain restaurants do not have cooks in the kitchen, they have chemists figuring out what makes our brains tick. Sugar, fat and salt is a lethal combination that tricks our brain into overeating because you will never find these three items all in one place in nature. So be aware and now that you know, create your own yummy & healthy versions of home made foods that work for you. Your body will thank you by staying vibrant and slow down aging with all the support you are giving it.

The other day I had a conversation with one of my students. Funny thing is we both had the same experience eating different foods. I had a break down grabbing a bag of store bought Pretzels a while back, eating about half of it. The next day I woke up with incredible joint pain and feeling bloated. Go figure, its not like I didn’t know that this would happen. The student however has just been starting to change her diet and been feeling really well when she ate at a place where she was served starchy and glutenous foods. She experienced a bloated belly and foggy brain withing 30 minutes of consuming that lunch.

If you’ve been feeling bloated, then you know more than anyone that you need to cleanse the junk from your body. It’s not always easy picking which path to take to cleanse your body for the results you want. But, I’ve made it super easy with my 24 Hour Blitz Detox.

I don’t believe in deprivation, so you will not feel deprived in any way. In fact, you’ll feel quite the opposite.

The reality is, no matter how clean we eat, we live in a very toxic world. Before we even open our mouths to take a bite of food, we are exposed to vehicular and industrial pollution in the air and toxins in our cleaning products and cosmetics. Not to mention the havoc wreaked on the body by stress. So, the question is not ‘am I toxic?’ but rather ‘how toxic am I?’

Ready to eliminate those toxins that cause weight gain, brain fog, loss of sleep, loss of mental clarity, and fatigue?

Here’s my 24 Hour Blitz Detox:

Upon Waking Drink:

Morning Lemon Elixir

1 cup warm or room temp water
Juice from 1 lemon
Pinch of cinnamon and a couple drops of stevia.

Carrot Ginger Soup

Put carrots, ginger, and onion in a pot with broth. Bring to boil then cover and reduce heat and simmer 20-25 minutes. Remove from heat and put everything in a blender or food processor to purée. Serve hot topped with fresh herbs.